#it's just such a weird metric to judge a game on
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filletedfennysnake · 6 months ago
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:3
đŸ’šđŸ„°đŸ—ĄïžđŸ«‚ for the ask game !!!!!!!
💚 (Favorite quest/story arc): It’s not my favorite per se, but I think when it comes to modern standards of storytelling, The Knight of the Kitchen is remarkably
 idk, clean? It’s very symmetrical; there are no extraneous moments or characters, and unlike most arthurian stories, the narrative arc makes sense (well, for the most part. Lynette being a necromancer was kind of out of left field. But we love her for that). The recreant knights are even color-coded! This is not to say I think medlit should seriously be judged by modern storytelling standards (obviously not, the texts were created under different metrics for different reasons), but I think that when you’re trying to get someone into arthuriana, the readability of what you first recommend can have a huge impact on their initial experience. And not only is Knight of the Kitchen accessible as a story, it introduces one to a lot of arthurian concepts: the fair unknown archetype, kay being a bitch, mean damsels, the chivalric pokĂ©mon logic that knights operate on, the casual violence they enact, weird unexplained magic. Also gareth is cute and lynette is the baddest bitch ever and. I just think they’re neat.
đŸ„° (A headcannon): I have so many,,, well. dodinel and dinadan are both intersex and aroace (when they found it was like. spiderman meme). they met when dinadan was sitting on the forest floor with a sprained ankle, playing his rebec. dodinel brought him to his ‘hunting lodge’ (it’s a hut). piggybacks were involved. once dinadan’s foot got bandaged up, they had a nice evening where they drank a lot of wine and did impressions of different nights of the round table. after that they became good friends :)
đŸ—Ąïž(Who are you betting on at the tournament?): Well, since gawain and lancelot have been off for months on a “‘quest”’ I think it’s either going to palomides and tristan
 what, you think lamorak has a chance? well, between you and me, I could have sworn I saw lamorak leaving an orkney’s tent last night
 he’s probably quite sore and stiff now, yeah? hehe, yeah
 no, I would bet on tristan. he’s got about the same martial prowess as palomides but with way more plot armor. let’s not think about the xenophobic implications of that :)))) it’s like 1256 and racism hasn’t been invented yet :))))))
đŸ«‚ (Platonic ship): guinevere/lancelot. I think they’re both gay. but their relationship is so weird and strange
 it compels me to ship them platonically.
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copperbadge · 2 years ago
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(not serious, just kinda wanted to talk to someone, you can delete it if you want)
The Facts, in eight bullets:
So it was 3.30am here and I was scrolling AO3, as one does when struck by the monster known as insomnia.
My bedroom is right next to my parents', with thin insulation between the walls, and although my dad works nights, my stepmom is a day-shifter. She also has insomnia, so I do try to be quiet on long nights.
My stepmom plays shows on low volume (a horror movie tonight, judging by the screams) in order to sleep. The insulation is thin, so I can hear it. It's not always horror movies (I hated her Big Bang Theory kick), and it doesn't usually keep me awake because once I manage to fall asleep, I stay asleep, so it's fine.
I'm autistic, and when I read funny things, I get really excited and tend to vocal-stim by repeating what I'm reading. It's not usually too loud, just a closed-mouth back-of-the-throat murmur, and sometimes I giggle a little bit. Still, though, I usually leave my headphones off so I can semi-control the noise level, because I get self-conscious.
Also, my stepmom and I both consider sleep precious, so I don't like interrupting her sleep unless it's really important.
I was reading a really funny slow-burn crossover fic where the two MCs have a Miraculous Ladybug-esque love square and are currently agonizing over their seemingly-unrequited crushes.
I had my headphones on and was playing white noise, in order to drown out the sweet, dulcet, televised tones of axe murder in the next room.
I got so loud, my stepmother came to see who the hell I was talking to.
I'm not in trouble. She was awake, thankfully (unthankfully?). But I think I'll play my puzzle game for now. And maybe get a glass of water, my throat is hoarse.
So that's how my night is going, Sam. How's yours?
LOL well you sent this a while ago (sorry for the delay) but last night was my first night of three weeks without A/C -- they're doing construction on the roof where our evaps are, and had to switch them off for a few weeks -- and it wasn't awful but it certainly wasn't spectacular :P Mind you, the cats love it; I usually keep the condo around 73F in summer and now it's a toasty, mostly consistent 77F, plus it's dry because in order to keep it from getting any warmer I'm running the HVAC fan 24/7. They're very pleased by their new desert biome.
That sounds like at once both a super fun stim and also something that might be inconvenient for you at times, but I love the idea of you just reciting fanfic loud enough that your mother watching a HORROR FILM got up to see what the deal was :D
Talking of evening routines, there are a number of games/apps that I mess around with that aren't US-based or have weird evening-engagement metrics to hit, so a number of them "reset" after 7pm -- my merge-three game gives me new bonuses, Duolingo has an evening changeover where you can get extra achievements, one of my Wordle forks (Waffle) resets, etc. And I usually go to bed around 8pm. So I've taken to setting an alarm and calling 7pm the "Power Hour". But it's particularly amusing because I'll announce "POWER HOURRRRR" in an arcade-fighter/pro-wrestler voice, then immediately sit on the sofa with two cats and spend an hour playing phone games. Power Hour indeed.
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utilitycaster · 2 years ago
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If you've read that recent article on polygon about Candela Obscura - "Critical Role’s Candela Obscura fails to differentiate itself enough from its inspiration" (6 November 2023) - I don't know much about the other systems and have trouble being objective about things I love, I was wondering what your opinion is
Hi anon!
I have! I will also admit I don't know Blades in the Dark terribly well, or rather, I have roughly the same BitD knowledge as I have Candela knowledge: I've watched (or in this case, listened) to a actual play show run in it (TAZ Steeplechase) and I've looked at the SRD. The Candela full rulebook doesn't come out for a week, so I really can't judge it for myself. So this isn't going to be objective either, but hopefully it will point out what I think the flaws in this article are regardless of the merits or failures of Candela Obscura as a game.
I think my overall issue is what I said about Polygon on the whole earlier this week: it really feels like their metric is first, is this innovative; and second, "does this reinforce my pre-existing political values in a way that allows me to feel warm and fuzzy and virtuous because I played a fun game/watched a fun show and lets me continue to ignore that I haven't actually engaged in any of that tiresome and inconvenient meaningful anticapitalist action."
I also, for what it's worth, think that this mentality very explicitly conflicts with what Critical Role is doing. I think a lot of people interpret the whole "a group of friends playing games" image as encouraging parasocial behavior (which, frankly, is weird in that while the CR fandom has had a parasociality problem, it's no different than any large fandom - Laurisha shippers or the Twinnies & Husbands crowd are literally just the Actual Play Fandom equivalent of Gaylors and Larries; also like, the pitch for WBN earlier this year was basically "hey, we're four friends playing games" and no one has blinked at that, nor should they have) when I think it's intended to mean "we are friends having fun making and playing the games we want to play; it's great if you'll join us but we're doing what we want." Given that Polygon has shown something of a bias towards those shows that give them early access, I do think it might be that they're just cranky they're not being given any special treatment or catering by an actual play show they've been shitting on for years, and this is simply a vicious cycle.
All that aside, more importantly in this case, I think the article shows a notable lack of Ebert's law: "A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it." Samantha Nelson, the author of this article, appears to be both incapable of evaluating Candela Obscura outside the context of Blades in the Dark - which is frankly, in my again admittedly limited opinion, vastly overstated as an influence (the Forged in the Dark engine is certainly a strong influence, but that's purely mechanical and also it's still only an influence - more on this later) - and also seems to want Candela Obscura's rulebook to flesh out Newfaire and Oldfaire in the same way that Blades in the Dark fleshes out Duskvol.
The thing is, those wide-open spaces and the vagueness of OldFaire? That's deliberate. The Looper interview with Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall as well as the Tabletop News interview both make this clear. The aim of Candela Obscura is to be very easy to pick up, to not have a bunch of intimidating lore that players and GMs need to know before they jump in (and I say this as someone who, when invited to her first D&D game, was the person who read the PHB and sent the other new players a brief summary of each race and class; I love intimidating lore), and to accommodate a wide range of styles. They considered making Oldfaire much more detailed in the book and then decided not to so that GMs felt more free with the world. Again, my knowledge of Blades in the Dark is heavily skewed by an actual play of it that's explicitly not in Duskvol (which I think is a very interesting commentary, namely, maybe Nelson just really fucking loves Duskvol but no one else gives a shit). I genuinely think they are, as more and more Polygon TTRPG/Actual Play coverage seems to be, barely paying attention to what's in front of them and just deciding based on who put it out.
As I said in my earlier posts I do think Candela distinguishes itself from BitD in a number of ways mechanically. The gilded dice mechanic is obviously one of the biggest ones. The lack of flashbacks - a pretty core element of Blades in the Dark - is another. The fact that scars change your stats rather than dealing a permanent penalty (as Trauma does in BitD) is seen as a flaw, as is the lack of lair-building, but I think these things work in tandem. Blades in the Dark is very much about growing territory and becoming a more and more powerful crime syndicate; while four traumas will take you out of the game the same way scars will, there's a lot more opportunities to heal and I believe you have much more room to take stress. Candela Obscura, as another interview I read states (ScreenRant), is a gothic/eldritch horror game about normal people in unfathomable circumstances. You don't really get much better! You adapt, but progress against these monsters is always a long shot. Candela as an organization has been operating for millennia, and the war seems to be one of attrition, and the mechanics, from what I know from the show, reflect that.
The bit about the criminal crew and the lair is honestly kind of funny to me, because in the TAZ Steeplechase wrap-up I listened to last week the McElroys noted that the lair element of BitD was actually really hard to incorporate and they largely ignored it. Obviously that's not true for everyone, but famously D&D in the earlier editions guided high level play towards running one's own dungeon, and there is a reason that hasn't survived to the newer editions, namely, that shift from being a crew out there doing wild and exciting heists and adventures to painting the walls of your clubhouse and hiring guards is not actually fun for a lot of people.
So in summary: I really don't think the author of this article paid a single scrap of attention to the motivations behind design choices, is mad the horror game doesn't give them a kiss on the cheek and tell them they're So Good at Leftism (the comment about not understanding that the restrictions on scarlet aren't tied to anti-immigrant sentiment is particularly egregious), and generally is like "why is this game that shares some similarities but ultimately rather different goals than Blades in the Dark not literally Blades in the Dark but with slightly more aggressive ghosts."
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lizardsfromspace · 2 years ago
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People attach this weird ass moral dimension to "wholesome" art and creators, and I don't mean when it comes to people who use that as a metric to judge other art. I mean acting as if there's some Suspicious about it, even if it's not a label they claim
I've seen it articulated as reminders that "a wholesome persona can be used to mask abuse", which gradually turns into like. An assumption you can make about people. But if you think about it for two seconds it's absurd. Yeah, a "wholesome" creator can be abusive. But there's no shortage of Serious Artistes or mainstream artists who were abusive creeps, so trying to claim that it's unique to one type of creator is just seeking a "moral" reason to hate something. It's a power dynamic, it can be found anywhere from an AAA studio to a studio making walking simulators. It's horrible advice to give people about avoiding abusive situations, too, since it frames abuse as something you have to fear from just one type of guy. What if we took schoolyard rumors about how Mr. Rogers was a sniper with 500 confirmed kills & turned them into a warning about how to not get murdered by Mr. Rogers, specifically
Especially bc this was in the context of video games. The art in question was, like. Cozy farming sims. Truly the biggest front for evil in modern times
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danzafila · 3 months ago
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so I finally got around to finishing Veilguard last night (stayed up til nearly 1 to do so lmao rip)
I'll have to spend some time formulating my thoughts. I definitely recognize its weaknesses compared to past DA games and the oddities of the... not so much changes as absences of previously significant elements of the world. some of that might be explained away as natural changes in the decade since the Inquisition disbanded, cultural differences between the south and north of Thedas, and/or just a matter of whose perspectives we were getting... but it still just felt weird and, at times, like this world was just... hollower than it had been in past installments. ultimately, I think the way one of my friends put it describes it best: it felt a bit like a soft reboot of the franchise
anyways. all that being said, I did still enjoy it for what it was. no surprises here, but the hate (obviously the anti-woke nonsense, but yes even a lot of the unappeasable Bioware fan complaints as well) is outrageously overblown. I think, without the baggage of 10+ years of expectations (because there were definitely decisions I would have made differently), it was a perfectly enjoyable game (and that's definitely reflected in what I've heard from friends new to the series). I know that's not a great metric to judge a sequel by, but when you view it instead as the soft reboot it seems it was developed as, it becomes more understandable imo
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fadebolt · 6 months ago
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I'm guessing this is about the character, and not the region, judging by the fact that you used 'him' instead of 'it' on the poll, and by the things said on the other reblogs. I could almost definitely do a full character analysis on the guy, but honestly, I don't feel like there would be of a point. The characterization of Five Pebbles has already discussed to death by the community, and I don't think I have anything to add, outside of maybe commenting on the readings of others.
And this poll isn't really about that, anyway. But instead, it's about how much we enjoyed him, as a character. And the fun thing about that is how there isn't a consistent metric for it. We all have our list of requirements, that need to be fulfilled, for us to fall in love with a character - and that list is completely different for each of us.
Mine is... certainly on the more unusual side, as I almost never get grabbed by the popular central characters, but instead, the one that really catches my eye is that one neat side character not many people cared about. (The most recent example would be Arcane, and how I wasn't overly invested in CaitVi, but got super excited whenever Singed showed up. And believe me, this happens in like, every piece of media I consume xd) But the weird part is that Rain World is the one thing that is completely exempt from this. Sure, with ships, I always had a preference towards the less popular ones - but if you're looking at just the singular characters, my favorites were actually the important central ones that most of the community also cared about.
Five Pebbles is undoubtedly on that list, and that is due to a combination of two things - the way he was framed, and the compelling, yet nuanced characterization. The game did a lot to make him seem godlike, and boy, does it work phenomenally! He's enormous. He's practically immortal. He's incredibly knowledgeable. He wields immense power. He talks in a very inhuman way, and makes it clear he sees you as someone who is beneath him in every way. And if you annoy him even just a little, he won't hesitate to just effortlessly kill you in a snap. The point is that this guy has an overwhelming presence, far above anything you've ever seen before, or since. And this only gets hammered in more, as you learn about the lore. As for the characterization, I'm gonna reiterate that I really don't have much to add, except for the fact that I personally found it quite compelling. The base game didn't show too much of him, but it did establish him as a bit of a flawed/morally grey figure. He's made mistakes, and is not exactly the most kindhearted fella, but he still wants the best for everyone, and is willing to assist both the Survivor/Monk in their mission for ascension, and the Hunter, in their quest to restore what's left of the group senior. Downpour did expand on him a bit, though a lot of what we've seen were things we could easily infer. Of course there were three things that stuck out - some of the pearl readings on Artificer's campaign, the sacrifice on Rivulet's, and the sheer extent of his collapse on Saint's. Some people understandably didn't like how the DLC humanized him, and heavily reduced how 'distant' or 'godlike' he felt. But honestly, I like that we got to peer into him a little more, and see what's beyond this outer layer that the base game presented us with. (And frankly, this is pretty much the direction I would have taken him, too..... okay, the Spearmaster outburst is something I almost definitely would have written differently, but that's about it) However, in spite of all of this, he... didn't really make it into the list of all-time favorite fictional characters - the kinds I would think about about on a daily basis, for multiple years. And why? I'm... not quite sure, actually. Because in theory, he should be up there. The only thing I could really note is how I don't think there's anything more I could add to him. Everything is already so well tied together. We got to see both the prelude, and the conclusion to his story, all the while his personality was completely fleshed out as well. And this is a really rare thing, actually. Usually, there are always some holes left to fill, but for Five Pebbles, I frankly don't see any. So I'd rather think about characters like Saint, who are practically nothing, but a bajillion holes, on top of a really intriguing premise (that's drastically oversimplifying it, but you get the point). But this is really not a bad thing, and is actually quite a breath of fresh air for me, after World of Warcraft's inconsistency, in regards to the execution of character conclusions, or the lore of Runeterra setting up a boatload of interesting things, only to never properly expand on them. Five Pebbles is how you do character writing right. And while you could argue that he lost a good chunk of what made him so memorable in the base game (even if you discount all the memes, and catboy stuff, and other fandom nonsense), what we got was a compelling, and absolutely devastating journey that undoubtedly stuck with me. So yeah. He deserves a 'love' for that. He technically ain't a brainrot of mine, but he doesn't need to be <3
maybe been done
Thoughts on Five Pebbles
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jeffgerstmann · 2 years ago
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why does playstation still outsell xbox 2:1? is microsoft STILL paying for the 2013 drm debacle?
I think that's probably part of it, but I'd probably look at the entirety of the previous generation, not just the DRM shit. The Xbox One was an under-powered piece of tech. The PS4 did great, they had smart initiatives to court indies that also helped earn them a lot of goodwill, and all of that is still paying off for them this time around. Sony also has games and first-party franchises that people want to play, and unlike Microsoft, Sony has been able to produce and ship a pretty decent number of those games already. People used to always talk about how games like Uncharted and most of the first-party games were big, but not necessarily as big as Sony felt they could/should be, but even if that's actually true, those games add up. In a world where the differences in hardware between the two machines are kinda minor, being able to say HERE ARE OUR BIG EXCLUSIVE GAMES matters. Sony's also been pretty smart about which games they go after. Surely getting Final Fantasy would be enough to sway some number of people to buy a PS5 over an Xbox Series X.
I also think Microsoft probably needs to be smarter about advertising and educating the mass market about Game Pass? Like do people even know it exists? I guess I'm not the best judge of that since I don't really watch any TV at all, but like... there should be big Game Pass ads on sports games and shit like that. For the mainstream game player who kinda operates on a budget and has a different mindset than the "core" "player," I would think that selling them on "the Netflix for video games" or whatever would be kind of a no-brainer.
In short, Sony has better third-party support, particular with Japanese developers, and their first-party games seem like they're really resonating with people in a way that Microsoft's simply aren't anymore. Maybe Call of Duty or Fortnite are factors here, and their rise helped lower interest in things like Halo or Gears of War? Regardless, it really feels like Microsoft's first-party teams just don't have what the masses are looking for anymore and with due respect to Forza, Starfield is their only big bet (that we know of).
All of that said, though... Microsoft's fortunes in gaming have been spread out. Their first-party games appear on PC and even in third-party stores like Steam. Some percentage of people who might've bought an Xbox are now realizing they don't need to buy one at all. Microsoft has more or less said that they're OK with that trade-off, but it sure does make a lot of these comparison points look rough for them. Ultimately we don't really know what "success" looks like for the Xbox division anymore because their business is more diverse and weird than it used to be (or, to compare, the Xbox business turns on different metrics than Sony's does). They've always seemed like they're taking the long view on things, for whatever that's worth.
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fancyfade · 4 years ago
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Objective list of superhero face coverings
5/10: Domino masks. Domino masks serve their function of protecting your identity and it is very hard for them to clash with other elements of a design. This makes them a safe default. They are the metric against which other face coverings will be judged.
Notable wearers: Dick Grayson, other Robins who aren’t Damian (we will see Damian later dw)
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[image: a close up of my art of Dick Grayson as Nightwing, wearing a blue domino mask. end image]
6/10: Domino Masks with a little something extra added on / Those weird masks that let people see your hair but are otherwise kind of cowl-like?
We’re getting a little more visually interesting now. Sure sometimes it’s a risk (at least just with domino masks with a little something extra, where that extra thing can be weird) but no risk no reward thats what I say
notable wearers: tim’s other weird mask, wally west as flash and kid flash, dick grayson’s villainsona (renegade)
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[image:... those types of masks on those characters? Tim’s domino mask goes down to nearly the bottom of his jaw, Wally’s mask covers his  face but not his nose and mouth area and stops at his forehead. dick’s is cut like batman’s cowl but does not cover his hair. end image]
7/10: Domino mask with hood & just no mask period.
Domino masks with hoods: Yeah, sure we have the domino mask that does not add a bunch to the aesthetic... because we HAVE other cool stuff going on in the head area that is carrying the bulk of the head design. a GOOD PROPER usage of the domino mask, well balanced design
No mask: We’re not playing any games; we want to not overwhelm the rest of our design with whatever our face mask is BUT we also don’t give a fuck. secret identity? who cares
Notable wearers: Damian Wayne (Domino mask with hood), no mask: too many to list but we’ll do grace choi since she best embodies not giving a fuck.
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[image: damian wayne in his robin son of batman costume with the hood up (black hood, gold trim) and a green domino mask, then grace choi. end image]
8/10: Cowls/ helmets that cover part of your faces / no mask BUT yes to other head gear like tiaras
Cowls, classic. Obscure your identity well but leave the mouth there for emotion. You can also put cool stuff like bat ears.
Helmets that cover part of your face: hit a very similar niche to cowls
no mask but head gears: we can see your beautiful face and you don’t give a fuck... BUT you are stylish
notable wearers: Cowls: bruce wayne (batman), also like almost everyone elsse who was “Bat-something”. Partial helmets: hawkgirl, hawkman. no mask but headgear: wonder woman (diana) with the tiara
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[image: left to right: Bruce wayne as batman, kendra saunders as hawkgirl with a very shiny hawk helmet, wonder woman (diana). end image]
9/10: full face covering helmets, those bottom of face covering masks in conjungtion with hoods
These are great in terms of mystery and protectionism. Are they the most expressive? No. Do I care? Also no.
bottom of face coverings: they jsut feel more cool and unique than domino masks, IDK. and they leave the eyes FULLY open for expression
notable wearers: helmets, jason todd I guess. bototm of face masks with hood: stephanei brown in one spoiler design, damian wayne in some redesigns that I like
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[image: jason todd as red hood, wearing his red face covering helmet. then stephanie brown in what was just described, and damian wayne as tallant with a whtie cape and hood and black mask. end image]
(link to the damian redesign)
10/10: Full face covering masks. These things are GREAT. We have all the intimating mystery factor of full face covering helmets AND all the expressive factor of it being you know.. a mask and not a helmet. They can do NO wrong and I will not hear a word against them!
Notable wearers: Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle) Cassandra Cain (Batgirl)
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[image: Cassandra cain as batgirl, lit from the sidei by orange light, and then jaime reyes as blue beetle, looking off to the side. end image]
look at them. they’re amazing
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thesugarhole · 7 months ago
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BUT WAIT!
THERES MORE!
reviewing only the ones that werent on the previous list. thank god. the metric here is strange and weird, which is hard to achieve when one considers wikipedias rules- am i to consider the existence of an article strange/weird? how about how the information is provided? or is it the content itself? its likely the latter. ill continue judging them on if theyre creepy, and will mention if theyre strange and/or weird when relevant.
bloody mary: creepy. a fun party freak-outer
taman shud case: redirects to somerton man. woaow... a real life unsolved assassination. not creepy
la voisin: god forbid women do anything. not creepy, but an awesome read.
greyfriars bobby: sad and not creepy. surprised theres no mention of seymour butts from futurama, since its a very similar story.
nuckelavee: hmmm.... creepy. go demons!
numbers station: creepy. to me at least.
uvb-76: as above. creepy. our first weird!
the garden of earthly delights: i never really looked at this properly before. its so full of bizarre detail, i cant help but love it. i personally dont find it creepy. its our first strange though!
glasgow smile: always creepy. i didnt know an actor had them!
roswell ufo incident: redirects to roswell incident. its very detailed! i think its more fun than anything else. im also a bit surprised this wasnt in the 136 list, with how well known it is.
alien abduction: is actually missing time#return, which redirects to blackout, a (big) disambiguation page. searching for alien and abduction wields nothing. im assuming it was about the unexplained time lapses people who claim to be abductees suffer. the disambiguation page is kinda weird.
catacombe dei cappuccini: holy shit. now THATS creepy. love that capela dos ossos is a see also in that page, lmao. ive been there! teehee.
grace sherwood: sad that things like this happened.
jatinga: sad. strange article to have.
sankebetsu brown bear incident: lmao youre joking. you gotta be. i missread the date it happened at first and was in genuine disbelief that this had been recent. scary!
mongolian death worm: not creepy.
the sick child: disambiguation page. leads to a hoax/scam and two paintings, none of which are particularly creepy, strange or weird.
dysaesthesia aethiopica: rightfully labelled as racist. weird as shit to even claim existed.
bloody benders: wow thats craaaazy. creepy
lamia: not creepy
black paintings: a classic goya story. creepy
the monster with the 21 faces: not creepy
shirime: BWHAHAHSDSH THESE THINGS. funny, weird. (trivia: in portuguese we have a saying that the third eye is blind, which refers to the asshole.)
oscar (therapy cat): oooh i already knew of him. cute. this is definitely a good contender for the 136 creepy list and yet. no where to be seen. makes you think
men in black: not creepy. would fit a dictionary entry better than a wikipedia one
the great red dragon paintings:
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oppa gangnam style
retroactive continuity: actually reality shift, and again, doesnt exist.
elizabeth bĂĄthory: lack of for-sure facts makes it meh.
delphine lalaurie: creepy
polybius: disambiguation page. im assuming its the video game, in that case: amusing
chelyabinsk meteor: goodness gracious! scary
armin meiwes: complex. already knew of it
big crunch: lol. sure why not
princes in the tower: meh
rosenheim poltergeist claim: whatever
peter stumpp: wow. you could just say whatever the fuck back then
bachelor's grove cemetery: not creepy
hill of crosses: oooh shut the fuck up i love this place
self-immolation: im not commenting on this
lycaon: arcadia now redirects to king of arcadia. not creepy
burk and hare muders: hmmm..... a wild case start to finish for its time.
kate morgan: not creepy
sawney bean: an ok legend
rogue elephant of aberdare forest: redirects to j.a. hunter. uhh. stupid?
yoshio kodaira: not creepy. please dont stab pregnant women in their bellies though.
incorruptibility: creepy.
jersey shore shark attacks of 1916: oh shit someone warn snooki
list of cryptids: my anger towards moth/owl/goat/jersey men almost prevented me from opening this... then i remembered nessie my friend nessie... some fun little buggers in it.
premature burial: you think it wont scare you but then you read the effects of being buried for long periods of time does to someone. terrifying. theyre not detailed much in this page though
zombie: youre joking, right.
mercy brown vampire incident: stupid
necromancy: has a creepy base to it
lamkin: not creepy
harry k daghlian jr: good
icelandic phallological museum: on god??? awesome
neisseria meningitidis: yuck
malleus maleficarum: hmm.
moll dyer: i dont remember if this one was in the other list, but sad.
black annis: just another kid eating witch.
true name: death note ass page. kinda cool concept though ngl
dorothy talbye trial: im sorry. she named her child difficulty???
black dog (ghost): now goes to black dog (folklore). ehhh. not creepy
wandering jew: huh. never heard of this tale.
sarin gas attack on the tokyo subway: tokyo subway sarin attack. scary!
yara-ma-yha-who: A LITTLE RED FROG MAN AIDOFFDGHJKDS
rod ferrell: shrug
the juniper tree (fairytale): its a story. what do you want from me?
i gotta be honest, the 136 creepy wikipedia articles... arent that creepy. theres one or two that sure, its unsettling info but i dunno. feel a bit misled
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fuckyeahisawthat · 5 years ago
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I think I’ve finally figured out why some discussions of the morality of Crowley’s various actions toward humans feel like they miss the mark for me. I mean, in general, I’m much more interested in understanding how a character thinks about themselves and why they behave the way they do than putting them in categories of Good Person or Bad Person, but in talking about our favorite noodle-hipped demon, there was also something specific that took me a while to parse out.
It’s because they judge his actions as if he were a human. But he isn’t a human. He’s a demon.
I don’t mean this in any kind of moral sense, but in a literal, existential sense. He is a creature whose entire reason for existence is to manipulate humans into doing things that get them sent to Hell. That is what he is supposed to be doing on Earth.
Our narrative foils Hastur and Ligur show us how demons are supposed to behave toward humans. They’re supposed to see them as utterly disposable. Sure, sure, getting them to sin is the job description, and it’s clear that direct manipulation is totally fine (a la the politician and the priest that Hastur and Ligur talk about). But straight up killing them because they’re being annoying, even if they’re a loyal servant like a Satanic nun, is clearly also fine. Maggot-munching a room full of telemarketers just because it’s fun is totally cool and good bad, and even expected. This is normal demon behavior.
It’s clear that for both Heaven and Hell, treating humans with anything less than contempt is considered weird. In Hell in particular--a society of the rejected and traumatized--I’d imagine a special sort of rage against humans would have been fostered. God’s favored creation, extended the possibility of forgiveness when demons were irrevocably cast out--I bet demons are supposed to fucking hate humans. Most probably do. And both Heaven and Hell, in their distinct ways, are repressive societies with strict expectations for behavior and job performance. Deviating from these norms can result in suspicion, surveillance and punishment by the powers that be.
By Hell’s metrics, Crowley has absolutely no incentive to be anything less than horrible to humans all the time, and he’s a very powerful being. Crowley and Aziraphale may like humans. They may like living among humans. But they are not humans. They are supernatural beings with a vast amount of power over humans and very strong incentives from their respective sides to use it in particular ways.
Crowley has nothing to gain and everything to lose any time he treats humans with less than 100% demonic malice. For a normal human, giving a bunch of paintballers guns loaded with blanks and letting them scare the crap out of each other and confront some uncomfortable truths about their own capacity for violence is a pretty shitty thing to do. For a demon, the fact that they didn’t all slaughter each other is an embarrassing, and possibly even dangerous, deviation from infernal behavioral norms.
It’s clear that Crowley’s demonic works are not all just harmless pranks. His large-scale Rube Goldberg sin-generating machines, like the M25 and the phone outage, are all about pushing people to a point of frustration where some of them will lash out at another person. He knows this, and he thinks it’s brilliant. He has fun with these demonic puzzles; he’s proud of them and he thinks they’re funny. 
(Some day I’ll write another post about how for humans whose work involves hurting other humans, creating games and jokes out of it is a VERY common psychological distancing mechanism, and it can be done in ways that make these humans look extraordinarily callous and cruel. For now I’ll just point out that this is a thing, and I see a lot of this in Crowley’s behavior.)
By the standards of human morality, some of Crowley’s demonic works look pretty mean--deliberately making people’s lives harder in small ways in the hope that it’ll push them to be shitty to someone else. By the standards of demonic behavior, Crowley might argue that giving people a choice--a choice he feels he never had--is a sneaky kind of mercy. The only kind he can get away with.
In the context of this discussion, I think it’s notable that the one time we see Crowley being truly sadistic, in the sense of cruelty for cruelty’s sake, solely for the feeling of having destructive, life-or-death power over something defenseless...he’s replaying someone else’s behavior. There’s a whole other level to unpack there, but...Crowley knows how to be cruel, and he could be extremely good at it if he wanted. He makes choices in how he treats humans, and every time he makes a choice that isn’t sadism, disdain and fuckery, he puts himself at risk.
This means Crowley can be an infuriating shitlord; he can do things that range from mildly annoying to decidedly mean; and he can still be considered embarrassingly soft by demon standards, just because he has a line beyond which the bastardry stops being funny and fun. Exactly where that line is turns out to be flexible depending on what he thinks about the person he’s currently fucking with...but the fact that the line is there at all would be considered extremely uncool by most demons.
Almost everything we see of Crowley’s behavior happens when he’s under Hell’s thumb. So many parts of his behavior have been a carefully calibrated performance for so long, a performance designed to protect him and allow him to live with as much autonomy as he could claw out of of a coercive system. 
How will he act once he’s finally free of the constraints of that system? I don’t think anyone knows. Least of all Crowley. The sudden openness of the question, who am I now? is probably terrifying. 
But at least he gets a chance to find out.
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risquefanfics457 · 5 years ago
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S/o Sleepover with the Dwuang + yong Joseph ?
I’m sorry, personal stuff has been crazy, I hope it’s okay with just Okuyasu and Josuke and Joseph.
The Duwang first has the idea when Okuyasu says that he has never had a sleepover. Josuke pounces on the chance and shakes him around, “DUDE!” 
“What?”
Koichi chimes in “We should have a big sleepover!”
Josuke hops around in a small circle like a kid on Christmas eve. “We should do it at your house!”
After that, the plan was set, Two days from then, from 7:00pm to 10:00am. 
Josuke
“Y/N, Y/N! Are you ready for the best night ever?”
He is so friggin excited! He is packing early and buying snacks and everything!
Blankets are a yes, big ones so he can snuggle next to you. He is stoked to get his chill on.
Bam! Romantic movie, BAM, Marvel, BAM, oh, some DVD about him as a baby. He brings it to his mom, “What is this doing with the movies?” Tomoko laughs and tells him it was just a keepsake she made herself when he was small. You yank in out of his hands and pack it in with the rest of your stuff for the sleepover.
Totally worth it.
By the time you guys are almost all settled after watching Captain America, you whip out the DVD much to Josuke’s surprise. “Y/N! No!!!”
You slide it in and watch a small wrinkly infant appear on screen. Bald.
Josuke sighs in defeat.
“Josuke, you were bald as a baby?” Yukako snickers.
“Hey, like you are one to judge me! You were probably just a baby... made of- hair or something!” Josuke defends.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense but as the slideshow progresses you can see him with some black tuft on his little head. From his first smiles and giggles to rolling over. This must have meant a lot to Tomoko. The more you watched, he gets bigger and bigger and his hair grows out until by age 4, the famous pompadour makes it daybout. He slowly grows more and more confident and your boyfriend slides up to you and puts his hand on yours and you wrap each other in one of the many blankets Okuyasu had. 
“You sure grew up to be handsome.”
He smiles.
“You were adorable though.”
“I’m not adorable...” He pouts. “I’m... masculine, and-”
You kiss him “And mine.”
Okuyasu
Shoot. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.
On the day of the sleepover he shouts, “Y/N! You’ve gotta help me!!!” He wraps his arms around your waist and slowly sinks to the floor. “I dunno what I’m doing...” He actually starts tearing up. 
“Oku, you’re gonna be fine. I’ve got you.”
You start by picking out a room for the sleepover to take place, “Living room would be good, right?” Okuyasu sets up a metric ton on blankets on the floor. “Is that enough blankets?”
You giggle, “More than enough, babe.”
“Oh thank god, I spend my months allowance on this stuff.”
“So, Josuke is bringing snacks and movies, and Koichi and Yukako are bringing games and activities, we just need to have the place decorated and music. 
You make a quick stop at your house and grab a bunch of fairy lights and by the store to pick up the latest album you had been saving for and you phone Josuke and tell him to bring a CD player for music.
When the time comes, everybody is awed by the lights and the enormous pillowfort from all of Okuyasu’s blankets. When Josuke goes to set up the movies Okayasu pulls you aside, “Thank you, Y/N. I couldn’t have gotten this to look as good as it is without you.” He awkwardly scratches the back of his neck. You reach up and cup his cheeks in your hands, “Anything for you babe.” You give hima quick peck and slip away to go watch 
Young Joseph
“Oh, Y/N!~”
You stop what you’re doing and follow the sound of his voice to him. “Y/N! Guess what?!”
You smile and shrug.
“Tonight, Lisa Lisa has Caesar and I pulling an all nighter! She wants us to spend all night awake without a wink of sleep, she says it’ll show resilience, or something, but do you know what that means?”
“Hamon training?” You ask.
“NO! SLEEPOVER!” He practically swings you around, “My best friend and my lover, having a whole night of fun together!”
“You made that sound really weird, Joseph.”
“My bad, but we can hang out all night, that’s like...”
You sit and wit for him to do the math in his head and then count on his fingers...
“8+ hours for anything!”
You smirk, “So, what’s the plan? Some booze and and music?”
“Precisely! I got some stuff in my room and then we just need a couple records and we’ve got a night of fun!”
“Okay, I get it. But don’t ever call it that again.”
The night begins with Joseph rushing into Caesar’s room yelling, “I BROUGHT TEQUILA!” 
You brought some makeup with you, Joseph said you should but you weren't expecting 2+ hours to be dedicated to ‘Joseph’s Drag Show’. You enjoyed it but Caesar just sat in the corner just shaking his head. Joseph frequently begged Caesar to let him put makeup on his face, with that a new competition began. Whoever falls asleep first gets a full face of makeup.
They played ‘Never have I ever’ with shots, and just competed over who was better with ladies, in the end, they both got super drunk, it was never decided because they threw hands and passed out. You were still somewhat sober and decided to cake both of them in makeup. 
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actualbird · 5 years ago
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nobody asked but here is every unraveled episode (as of may 2020) as how they’d be as a lover | a 2.5k word long post written in the style of an unraveled about unraveled and also love
Ah. Unraveled. Polygon’s golden boy of a video series where Brian David Gilbert is beckoned into a suit, lured into a blackbox studio, and is only granted escape after he has explained to three cameras whatever batshit video game adjacent thesis he has been cursed with this time. Unraveled is a wonderful video series, and we all love it.
But what if it could love us?
If you’ve ever asked this question to yourself, boy, do I have some content for you, because for the past 2 days, I’ve been working on this post where, for entirely too long, I explain to you how each Unraveled episode would be as a lover. And more importantly, which ones would be the best lovers.
Before I fall deep into this unhinged hole and take you down with me, I need to explain some things.
First: I want to make it clear that I am not categorizing BDG as he portrays himself in each Unraveled. I am instead taking each Unraveled episode as a fully formed being, the story, performance, etc, and letting that shape a character of its own. This character is where I extrapolate details from to create an Unraveled episode’s qualities as a lover. What I’m basically doing is anthropomorphizing Polygon dot com video content. And then making you date them. If this doesn’t make sense, don’t worry, it will as you read along. And if it helps you to visualize the Unraveled Episode As A Lover, I invite you to just imagine whomever it is you are most attracted to---or for those who don’t experience attraction, whomever it is you find most aesthetically pleasing---and then just add in the wild personality traits I describe through the course of this post.
Second: I know what you’re thinking. “Avian, the characteristics of what makes a good lover is subjective!” And I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve been through college, and I’ve witnessed my friends whom I love so dearly enter relationships with some of the most wack ass motherfuckers I’ve ever met. I know that people are into different things. But do I judge them for it? Well, kinda, yeah! Yes, what we want in a lover is subjective, but I’ve consumed a metric fuckton of romance media over the course of my life and am also in a wonderful relationship with my own girlfriend, and thus have my own personal idealized ranking for what makes a good lover. Feel free to disagree with my rankings of Unraveled Lovers, but also, I’m writing this post. I say this with as much love as I possibly can, but if you disagree with me, make your own post. If you don’t wanna make your own post, you’re just going to have to trust me for 2.1k more words.
With that out of the way, let me take you on a journey through the 23 Unraveled Lovers, from worst to best.
BAD TIER: I would probably advise you to break up with these Unraveled Lovers as soon as you are emotionally capable of doing so.
Hoo boy, we’re starting at the bottom. The perfectionists, the nitpickers, the emotionally unavailables. These Unraveled Lovers would have good intentions, but just have aspects within their personality that will wear you and your relationship together down until both of you can no longer take it.
“Ranking all 200+ Megaman robots” is a lover obsessed with the concept of “is this worth it?” They would unknowingly but inevitably rank parts of your own personality on a scale of ‘worth the trouble in this relationship’ and ‘not worth the trouble’. Any lover who deals with you with this kind of dichotomy is somebody you should not be with. You should be accepted and loved for all your parts, the beautiful and the ugly.
“How to make the perfect E3 press conference” is a lover who spent years consuming romance media and has a list of what makes the perfect relationship. So not only do they have unrealistic expectations for what a relationship is, but they will be obsessed with reaching that unreachable perfection. That will definitely put a strain on your relationship until the veneer of desired perfection crumbles away, leaving you both tired and sad.
On a less deep note, “How to tell apart all 596 Fire Emblem characters” just won’t remember any of the names of your friends or family. Sure, they’ll try, but they’ll give up in like 15 minutes and you’ll never be able to take this Unraveled Lover to a family reunion or a party with your friends. Probably not a dealbreaker, but as the Spice Girls said “If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.” This Unraveled Lover will not. Next.
“No one asked but I found Mortal Kombat’s best cuddler” and “I wasted 3 weeks of my life finding Castlevania’s hottest monster” are two Unraveled Lovers with a similar problem: they both won’t shut the fuck up about their exes. Mortal Kuddler constantly brings up all the other cuddles they’ve experienced and Castlevanias Hottest Monster will tell you you’re beautiful, but also bring up like 69 other monsters they think are also beautiful. This might not be a red flag, but personally, this would tire me out, always being thought of in comparison or contrast to others.
That ends the BAD TIER and brings us to the OKAY TIER where a large chunk of the Unraveled Lovers fall into, so much so that I had to create more specific sub tiers under the OKAY TIER.
So let’s get into the OKAY TIER: These Unraveleds Lovers are alright, you’ll just have a sublimely weird relationship.
These Unraveled Lovers will treat you right but they’re also just very peculiar. Nothing wrong with that at all, but I’m here to explain to you just in what ways these okayest lovers are bizarre. Let’s start with the first sub tier.
OKAY SUB TIER: College Students who are way too into their major
There are a lot of Unraveled Lovers under this subtier, and this shouldn’t surprise you, because Unraveleds are inherently nerdy. These are lovers that will be good to you but also just never fucking shut up about what it is they’re studying.
“I read all 337 books of Skyrim so that you don’t have to” and "Understanding Kingdom Hearts (and every other story" are Creative Writing majors obsessed with analyzing every single thing they read. As a Creative Writing major myself, I would advise you to never date a Creative Writing major unless you are a Creative Writing major yourself. I think that’s the only way the relationship can be ethical. Being sent essays from the New Yorker every day would be torture if you didn’t actively enjoy it.
“We made all 78 Breath of Wild recipes in one day” is a Culinary Arts major and, score, they’re gonna wanna cook for you! A lot! Beware though, because it’ll be a hit or miss on whether or not the food will be good, but you must admit, that there is nothing quite as attractive as your lover making you food (let’s just hope the food doesn’t harm you).
“Smash Bros. owes millions of dollars in OSHA violations” is going to law school and that should be a dealbreaker in itself, but I’ll be a bit lenient because they’re always working towards the safety of everybody. This Unraveled Lover will always remind you to put your seatbelt on and also tell you exactly what laws you are violating.
“Bowser’s military hierarchy” is a Political Science major, and Political Science majors scare me. So I’ll just say they’re okay, and leave it at that.
“Which Dark Souls Boss is the best manager?” is a rare non-evil Management major because they actually truly care for the welfare of employees. They just will always talk about it, even when you guys are on a date. I know worker’s rights are important, but it’s not exactly what I want to talk about in between kisses, yknow?
“I fixed Fallout’s music by creating a totally new genre” is a Music major who keeps accidentally making Ska love songs to you. You didn’t know Ska love songs could be a thing. This Unraveled Lover makes it a thing.
“Scientifically Calculating the Game of the Year” is a Math major so you will never have to worry about calculating bills because they can do it for you.
“Calculate your pet’s HP with my 100% legitimate formula” is a Veterinary Medicine major so if you’re an animal lover, this Unraveled is the one for you! Just beware, because this Unraveled Lover will also spend a lot of time observing you from afar to quantify your health points, but both of you will inexplicably find this activity strengthens your relationship.
And last but not least for this sub tier, “When can Mario retire?” is a disillusioned Accounting and Finance major who chose this line of study to get a job and, through the years, realized what a hellscape capitalism is. You may have to deal with a lot of zoning out and staring off into the distance, with this Unraveled Lover, but a lover who hates capitalism sure is a good egg.
That brings us to our next sub tier!
OKAY SUB TIER: Cultists or Conspiracy Theorists (AKA...College Students who are way too into their extracurriculars)
These Unraveled Lovers are alright! They’re just a little bit off the shits.
“Every Sonic game is blasphemous” will get really really worked up about things and probably try to start a cult. For most, that’s a definite dealbreaker, but what makes Sonic Bible an okay lover is that they eventually calm down from the cult outburst and apologize. So this Unraveled Lover will treat you well, you just have to be ready to ground them when they get a little bit bonkers.
“Solving the Zelda Timeline in 15 minutes” is very similar to Sonic Bible, except instead of starting a cult, every once in a while they’ll just sit you down on a chair and explain to you their latest obsession while slowly and intensely stripping. Which, hey, that could make for a fun night, if you’re into that kinda stuff! Definitely okay in my book.
That brings us to our last okay sub tier.
OKAY SUB TIER: Your Unraveled Lover might need to schedule some sessions with a therapist, and that’s Okay
Listen, we all have baggage. We all have problems. These are Unraveled Lovers who want to be the best for you, but at the same time have issues of their own, and you’re going to have to support them when they pop into their local psych clinic to make themselves better people.
“Waluigi” is an Unraveled Lover who is going through some identity issues. They want to be good for you, but they don’t even know who exactly they are. They may feel as if they are tricking you into being in this relationship, that they aren’t who you think they are, and while these fears are irrational, they wholeheartedly believe it and will never feel fully secure in this relationship until they have made peace with themselves. If you love this Unraveled Lover, you’re going to have to stick with them as they learn more about who they are.
“Kirby” is an Unraveled Lover who, for some reason, is obsessed with the constant quest to make things make sense. This need of theirs bleeds into every aspect of their life and can definitely affect your relationship. This Unraveled Lover may sometimes perhaps cite that they don’t deserve you because they can’t seem to figure out a logical and objective answer for why you are with them. This issue of treating everything like a puzzle to solve is an issue they will have to work out and recover from, and they will be receptive to this process of recovery because they cherish the relationship they have with you and understand that not everything has to be solved; some things can just be felt. If you choose to stay with this Unraveled Lover, you must be prepared to support them when they take a mysterious but needed soul searching journey in the woods. You must be prepared to sit with them along the shores of the beach and reassure them that life is about living, not about answers.
And that, dear readers, ends the OKAY TIERs. Now it’s time for the tier you have all been waiting for.
Drumroll, please!
GOOD TIER: Pop open the champagne, bring out the strawberries dipped in chocolate, and let Spotify play Careless Whisper, baby, because we’re in the Ideal Lover zone.
Welcome to the Ideal Lover Zone. Here, we have three Unraveled Lovers who are just extremely good fellas.
“I used the Sims to perfect my apartment” is an Unraveled Lover who will work their hardest to be the best for you, but unlike the BAD TIER perfectionists, it will naturally dawn to them that perfection is unattainable. After this realization, they will find comfort and happiness in your romantic relationship and the other healthy relationships they have with other people. This Unraveled Lover will be sincere with you when the time calls for it, but will also not be afraid to be goofy for it. Above all, this Unraveled Lover will ask for help when they need it. They may often be shy, at first, but they understand their limits and will openly communicate to you when situations call for it. Communication is the bedrock of any good relationship, and this Unraveled Lover will never keep you guessing.
“The Perfect Pokerap” is similar to the Sims, in the sense that they will at first strive for perfection in the honeymoon phase of your relationship but then understand that that isn’t possible and then set more reasonable and realistic goals. What sets this Unraveled Lover out from the crowd though is just how much they cherish you. How devoted they are to you. The love you will feel in this relationship will be transcendental, and, even if you do break up, this Unraveled Lover will never forget you.
And finally. Who---according to me, a mildly delirious 21 year old rando on the internet---is the most ideal Unraveled Lover?
It’s “Find your Kojima name with my simple 11 page form.” Why? Because this Unraveled Lover wants to know you. They want to know everything about you, the parts you like and the parts you don’t like. This is a lover who will not shy away from any aspect of yourself, but instead, embrace you for who you are as a full fledged person.
They’ll also give you a whack ass pet name, and boy, isn’t that romantic?
Well, there you have it. All (as of May, 2020) of the Unraveled Episodes as 23 Unraveled Lovers. What did I learn from this endeavor? That romantic love is complicated, but if you’re into it, it is definitely worth the trials and tribulations.
...As long as I’m not dating the Castlevania Unraveled. Seriously, when we’re making out, I don’t wanna hear about how sexy the Hyena With Gun is. Learn how to read the room, dude.
(Thanks for reading.)
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bigprettygothgf · 4 years ago
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most RE6 criticism boils down to "it's not survival horror" which is weird when Capcom said it wouldn't be and the same criticism isn't made toward the Wii light gun games
it's got problems of course but I think it's not fair to judge it based on a metric it was never designed for just because earlier games were made as survival horror. it deserved better
like theres a slew of legit complaints to make with re6 and i agree with most of them but a lot of the popular complaints are just so nitpicky and unfair and half the time are just parroted by people who have no experience with the game at all and are just repeating what theyve seen online secondhand
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alex-seity · 4 years ago
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Ironically, Iïżœïżœïżœm still thinking about what you said that day.
For the past year, I’ve been getting myself into knowing people. The internet is full of wonders and there’s a place for everyone, even me, who was never good at this whole socializing
 thing. Six years ago, I wouldn’t think I would have more relationships than I could count with my fingers. I didn’t even have a phone, and I was sixteen. But now I worry I’m not going to be able to keep up with my socials. That sounds so stupid, and it is completely beyond my understanding how I came to sound like a popular person
 which begs the question: do I have lots of friends or am I just having multiple superficial, short term relationships? Or alternatively: how do time, space, shyness and sincerity work on the internet.
Time works very differently in virtual spaces. You already know the running gag of a meme or a trend dying a week after it becomes viral, but I’m not writing about that. I’m writing about the vertiginous speed at which you might be forgotten; not as a trend or as an influencer, but as a person. As a face. The weather changes quite fast in online chats, and people come and go as they please. And on that note, having a deep conversation with an anonymous account in a public forum is a strange experience, you feel both naked and accepted, both vulnerable and understood. That’s a friend you make and miss at the blink of an eye. Once, a person on those forums told me the most comforting words I needed to hear at that time: write who you are. Doing that made me able to self-reflect and find myself when I was deeply lost. I could never thank them, because, as I said, the rain is heavy and the sound is muffled. You never know when the other has left, or if they ever heard you in the first place.
It can also pull the strings of space, both closer and further away. I remember the spring of 2018. I went to Sweden and made three friends who all liked Homestuck; now, for the past years, I’ve managed to still talk to them through my phone. Isn’t that awesome.
And cliché.
So far yet so close, so close yet so far. And even then, there’s an impossible distance that eludes every metric. I’m talking about coldness. You see, even if we have everyone at the palm of our hand, we might not be able to talk to them sometimes. We have places to be and other people to meet, not to mention activities we like to do alone. Meanwhile, an ice wall seems to be rising between you and the other. Relationships get cold quickly. Or maybe that’s just me. “It would be too weird to call them now” “Does he even remember me?” “What do I talk about?” I have these questions because I worry I’ll be rejected. Fear of rejection: one of the most present on the internet, because fictional space means distance is made up too, which is a good thing since you can block anyone that hurts you, but a bad thing since anyone can marginalize you as well. Conclusively, we have full agency in what near and far mean; that’s both empowering and frightening.
Following the last train of thought, I see anonymity as a boundary in public space very few communication media have. Anonymity; this monster that seems to have shadowed all internet discussion. Let’s get this out of the way first, anonymity only exists as a concept. Even if you can fake an identity, there are parts of your true self that are impossible to hide. If you choose not to show your face, your voice still expresses who you are. If you express yourself only by text, your writing style informs of a surprising number of distinguishable features that make you up. Secondly, I’ve learned that being anonymous isn’t necessarily harmful. By one side, there’s those who use it to shield themselves for real-life consequences of spreading hate. By the other, however, and since you choose what is known of you, there’s the more general population that use it to be themselves while also being safe—they can be hurt psychologically, but never physically.
As expected of a place where people have control over the boundaries between the private and the public, people here show more honesty than elsewhere. No one can judge your body, your voice, or even your nationality if you don’t let them. Your personality alone may speak without fear.
Even then, coldness is still unavoidable.
Aristotle—sorry to pull this guy out of his grave, I’m a philosophy student and can’t help to do constant parallels—Aristotle wrote about friendship in terms of a space that surpasses another. That means you and I are not friends because we go to the same school, but because we want to meet later at the park. This, in online relationships, translates to “we are not friends because we play the same game or talk in the same forum, but because we call each other in Discord later”. Although there’s a joy in playing games with certain people, they aren’t always our authentic friends; the ground between gaming-buddies and friends is misty. This is why I met so many people, but not as many friends along the way. Most people I discussed this with had the same experience of finding interesting folk while playing a game, growing emotional investment toward them, and abruptly seeing them disappear like they never existed. So coldness is unavoidable, because when you face the uncertainty of the future, when fear of loss crawls by your back, it’s really hard not to build a shelter made of the thickest ice around your heart; not to escape having hopes, so you can’t have them crushed either.
I got myself into knowing people on the internet thinking it would be easier, but ultimately friendship is the same wherever you find it. Time seems to fly faster, but people come and go, so have fun while you can and cry when it’s over. Distance is fictional, but you don’t need to stay anywhere, be it here or in real life, if it makes you feel uncomfortable. And sure, this conception of virtuality comes in part from exploring it, and in part out of my own biases. There are things you might relate to that are ultimately subjective: this place is immense, its people, diverse... its "weather", strange. Everyone follows a different path. And ironically, I’m still thinking about what you, apparently a stranger, said that day.
You told me about the snow in Finland and the solitude of snowflakes, about friends long-lost and the impossibility of time. About cookies, both in a browser and in the oven; about humans, both stupid and wishful. Morning routines, favorite candy, nail ideas, the sun in Australia, the cliffs of Norway. We shared poems and songs, and I listened to your troubles and you listened to mine. All of these voices I’ll remember and consider my friends. Even if I lose them in the digital space, my arms will always be open to them, and to any kind stranger.
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lightpunster · 5 years ago
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Ambiguous-Immortal-Teen Relationships: A (Very Long) Precedent-based Plea for Tolerance
Hey so I know this is going to make people mad but I need to get if off my chest. We all know that pedophiles have organized and invaded a lot of social media sites (Tumblr, Twitter, etc.) and are attempting to label themselves as an oppressed group. This has made a lot of fandoms increasingly vigilant and intolerant of any content that could be construed as pedophilia. While I condemn pedophilia and agree that we need to fight this movement, I am concerned that a lot of the hyper-vigilance and virtue signaling I have seen in this regard is misguided. Let me explain. The fandoms I am referring to are for animated shows, whose casts are often comprised primarily of teenagers. While there are adults present in these shows, I have seen little content pairing them with the underage cast in this context (although I acknowledge it exists). Instead what I see a lot is pairing of underage main characters with characters who appear to be a similar age, but are “ambiguously immortal”. Some examples of this are the ship Stevinel from Steven Universe, which pairs a 17 year old boy with an immortal ageless alien, and Rosegarden from RWBY, which pairs a 16 year-old girl with a 14 year-old boy who, in addition to his own soul, has the reincarnated soul of another man inhabiting his body.
Now to some of you, especially those of you familiar with discourse around these shows, these ships may sound like pedophilia; and I could argue that despite clear age differences, they have similar values and experiences and are at similar stages in development and blah blah blah. However, I am always worried about these arguments (on their own anyway) because I know these are pedophile talking point in real life; “They acted older!” or “I have a young soul!” are NOT EXCUSES for pedophilia (there are no excuses, get help). So why should fictional media be any different?
Do any of you remember the YA series Percy Jackson and the Olympians? In one of these books, the titular Percy, 16, is trapped on an island with a teenage-looking girl named Calypso who falls in love with him and they kiss. It turns out that she is an immortal Titan who has been cursed to live on this island forever, falling in love over and over with the teenage guys who wash up on her island. What about the animated series Avatar the Last Airbender? Aang, 12, is the reincarnation of thousands of past Avatar, and those past lives watch over him and he can commune with them through meditation. In the series, he falls in love with and kisses Katara, a 14-year old girl, who he later marries. Multiple of his past lives and his next life are also shown to have relationships with teenagers. Any Twilight fans out there? Remember when 100+ year old vampire Edward made out with 17-year old Bella? That was mainstream for a while. I know we’ve got some Adventure Time watchers out there. Remember when 800+ year-old candy-elemental Princess Bubblegum kissed 14-year old Finn in season 3? I think she actually kissed him twice in that season. Finally, I think it’s a little less mainstream, but in YA novel Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox, 14-year old boy genius Artemis and 80 year old elf Holly Short (80 is basically a young adult elf) travel back in time. Because of some weird timey-wimey stuff, Artemis is “aged up” to 18 and Holly is aged back to her 30s (equivalent of “adolescant”/teenager) although they retain all of their memories. And you guessed it; they kiss. If you think all of this media is pedophile propaganda, then my argument is not going to convince you so you might as well leave. However, I hope that some of you are thinking “Wait a minute, I remember that! Why didn’t I think it was wrong at the time?” Well I’m here to tell you that it was not wrong. All of the things I’ve just mentioned do not actually exist. Not only are they fictional characters in works of fiction, but the actual mechanics which enable them to happen do not exists and are impossible; there are no immortal aliens or titans, no reincarnation, no vampires, none of it. So when you call those things pedophilia, a sexual attraction of humans above the age of 18 to humans below 18, it is not correct legally or morally. Essentially, I believe that when we talk about magical beings who live a long time, it makes no sense to judge a relationship appropriate or inappropriate because the other character is under 18. For some relationships, it will be fine and healthy and beautiful; for others, it would be toxic and dangerous if they were 17, 18, 19, 35, etc. Age is an ok metric for teenage and young adult humans when it comes to maturity and ability to avoid being taken advantage of (less good for older adults, but of course absolutely critical for children). However, it does not transcend all fictional species or scenarios when you start throwing things like magic and immortality into the mix. So all I’m asking is that when you see content for ships likes these, whether cannon or fan-created, please do not rush to call those creators pedophiles purely because of age of the characters; make a judgement base on the character of the characters: are they really toxic for each or might they actually be good together? And if you decide that the relationship IS toxic or IS pedophilia, feel free to point that out...but make sure you are criticizing the ART, not the PERSON. I’d like to remind everyone that art is not reality; you may FEEL differently, but actual evidence has shown that depictions of pedophilia do not encourage pedophilia any more than playing violent video games encourages violence, and everyone has a right to enjoy media in their own way. Save your energy for fighting real pedophiles, not imaginary ones.
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purplesurveys · 4 years ago
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1153
survey by septictankyank
What song are you listening to right now? I turned off my Spotify like 2 minutes ago because it was interfering with my focus on another survey (which I ultimately saved in my drafts to take for another time lol) but the last song I played was Always in My Head by Coldplay.
Have you heard of the band Repeat Offender? Never heard of them.
Are you currently talking to/texting/instant messaging anyone? No, not talking to anyone at the moment.
Whats your name? Robyn.
How old are you? 22.
If you could do anything right now, what would it be? I wish I can do some arts and crafts right now, honestly. I have a 4-day break thanks to Holy Week and I have no clue how to spend it. I don’t feel like embroidering at the moment; buying art kits online right now would be useless because they’d most definitely arrive after my break; and the arts I do have rn were bought by Gab and I have no intention to pull them back out anymore.
Are there any words that you just absolutely hate? I don’t really like the word fluids, but I get why it’s sometimes necessary. Gunk can also be icky depending on the context.
Are you hiding something from someone? Yes.
Have you ever been looking for something and it was already in your hand? It was either in my hand or I was already wearing it, yeah happens a lot.
Is there anything about you that not many people know? Probably. I don’t know how much people know about me.
Who was the last person you commented on MySpace? I’ll use Facebook for this instead; it was Clarisa, an old friend of mine from high school. I shared a post from her small business’ social media page and she commented basically saying thank you.
Is the last person you texted your friend? No, I only use text for work purposes now. And actually, the last person I texted is this super popular local influencer, as in millions of followers and goes viral every week levels of big. I was honestly surprised they returned my text, and even though they had to decline the thing I was pitching for them, I felt starstruck for like 5 seconds haha.
Have you ever seen someone you knew and purposely avoided them? This has happened many times. And for a variety of reasons, too; it can be because I don’t like them, can be because I know of them but not close enough with them to say hi, or just because I don’t feel like talking that day, etc.
Have you been to the mall in the last 2 weeks? Nah, it’s been around 3 weeks to about a month, I think. Shortly after that Covid cases began to surge again and now we’re stuck in the same community quarantine imposed this time last year while the country gets 10,000 cases a day.
What was the last movie you saw? I can’t remember the last movie I watched all the way through to the end; but I looked up and watched the final scene from Portrait of a Lady on Fire last night because I wanted to feel things.
What was the last song you listened to? See first question.
What do you like best about yourself? Continued from this afternoon. I really like how I’ve always managed to pull and claw myself out successfully from any terrible situation. There’s been a lot that I’ve been through and I love myself a whole lot more for being able to survive everything.
How long until your next birthday? 20 days.
Are you mad at anyone right now? There’s resentment perpetually brewing towards one person in particular, but I keep it tucked away at the back of my head.
What was the last book you read? Not sure, probably a memoir of some sort.
Do you like summer? I hate it.
Are you single or taken? Single.
Have you ever kissed someone with braces? Yes, for a time. It was very tricky lol, but fortunately there were never any accidents.
If you could change your eye color, would you? No, I think my current one suits me already.
Do you buy songs on iTunes? I never did. If I wanted to update my iTunes, I’d go to YouTube and look for the song I wish to add, convert it to MP3 on some third-party site, then upload it to my iTunes once it’s finished downloading. And then I’ll get the album cover and other details from Wikipedia to make it look really legit lol.
Are you overly sensitive sometimes? Yeah I am pretty sensitive.
Do you smile at people you don't know? Only whenever I’m with one of my dogs because they’d usually want to pet them, especially Cooper. Otherwise there’s really no reason to smile and say hi to everyone I come across; that’s not a common practice here and people usually like to keep to themselves.
Do you feel guilty right now? No reason to be.
Have you ever had a crush that you tried to stop having? Sure.
Have you heard of the band Nina May? I don’t think so. It doesn’t ring a bell.
Do you think long distance relationships are worth it? It can be, given the right amount of effort and commitment put into it.
Do you tend to judge people? Only if they make a Karen-esque scene in public. I understand people have bad days sometimes and that’s fine, but I won’t hesitate to judge someone who consistently berates service staff, makes side comments at a restaurant, etc.
Valentines Day: Love it or hate it? I don’t mind it. I would celebrate it too; I’d just keep the festivities lowkey, like having dinner at home or having an unconventional date. Going with the rest of the wave is exhausting – most restaurants are fully booked and it usually ruins the vibe.
Are you American? No, thank you for asking first.
Have you ever been made fun of for being weird? Probably while I wasn’t looking.
Who do you want to see in concert? Beyoncé is at the top of my list. Then Paramore, over and over again. It would be neat to watch a Hozier gig too.
How many songs are on your iPod?
Do you play any sports? Table tennis.
Are your parents together or divorced? They’ve been together for 28 years.
Do you prefer black and white or color photographs? Color.
Do you eat breakfast? Only during weekends. I’m usually too busy during weekday mornings to be able to fix myself a plate.
Do you still trick or treat? Not anymore, but I’d be game if any of my friend groups wanted to.
Do you use metric or imperial? I use metric in most contexts but because of wrestling, I got used to using pounds for weight.
Have you ever skipped class? Definitely many times during college. I was cautious in high school though.
Did you like this survey? It was okay.
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